Dalila
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Dalila looked at Leonator out of the corner of her right eye as she looked down the slope at the hole into the structure.
As she looked down at the hole, she heard Leonator clear his throat.
“Hey, where's Terra?” Leonator asked.
“The only people who made it back are Dalila and Vivis. The rest are in there,” Duncan said finally.
“What?! How are we getting them out?!” Leonator demanded.
Tatrina nodded as well. “He's right! We don't leave our own behind!”
Dalila forced her face to stay blank. She understood that belief, but how the event happened made that impossible. From the way the floor just gave out, there was nothing that anyone could do. And with Jessie and Zevortro acting so fast, there was no way for her to stop them. And that still wasn’t talking about how Jessie moved!
That had to have been fueled by the same energy that the Power used. If he had awoken those abilities, then anything could have happened. It stood to reason that he might have gained an ability to move like he had, but she doubted it. The way that Jessie had reacted, he knew how to use them. And that meant time, time to train to use his ability to the best that he could, like all Hunters would. Everything lined up with the truth that Jessie had been hiding what he could do since they crashed here. Adding that bit of data showed that Jessie had no idea how to gain the Power.
“How the stars did they get left behind!?” Leonator demanded with a scowl on his face.
Dalila only sighed and shook her head. “The floor was destroyed when one of the bots exploded. We just didn’t have any time to react.”
“Then they’re dead!?” Tatrina asked horror in her voice.
Dalila felt a small spark of hope as she thought about the chances of that being true. “No, possibly not. If I’m right, they hit the water. If we’re lucky then it was deep enough to keep them alive.”
“And that’s why we need to set up a shield emitter down there! So we can keep the bots out and let them when they get back here!” Duncan said, everyone, looking at him as he spoke.
Dalila nodded as she went over the work that was needed to get that done. She just needed a few minutes to set it up once it was in place. Then they would be able to hold the robots off as long as they had power to fuel the machine.
“Wait, what!? You’ll just let the robots through when you drop the shield to let them in?” Tatrina asked shock in her voice.
Duncan looked at her and scowled. “We’ll just be opening a small hole. We’ll defend it and close it behind them, anything that gets through we’ll handle it.”
From the way that Tatrina’s body was reacting, Dalila suddenly had a strange feeling that something was very wrong with their gear. She had seen the shield do that, and the watch towers themselves were proof. And that meant that Tatrina knew something about shield generators that the others didn’t, and that was bad. It made her question just why their tech gear could do what it could, and that was bad. You should never question the effectiveness of your gear before you go into battle, it always leads to bad things.
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Tatrina
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Tatrina looked around, seeing the looks on the other's faces. None of them even saw anything wrong with what Duncan said, and that made her worried. She hadn’t heard of any shield emitters that could do that at this size. The only ones that she knew could do that needed the processing power of the main computer of a cruiser! “So let me understand, you can change parts of the shield? With the tech you’ve got here?!”
“Yeah,” Duncan said, slowly turning his gaze to her. From the look in his eyes, he saw nothing wrong. “I don’t know what’s the problem. I mean, spaceships and bases can open their shields, right?”
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It was all Tatrina could do to keep standing upright before she exploded. “YES! But that’s because they all have cutting-edge processing power! Something this small, opening holes in shields? And doing it as fast as you think it can? That’s beyond anything I thought even military models are capable of!”
“The parts looked the same in the control console I salvaged. Then it has to be the emitters themselves……… Wait! What’s that!?” Dalila cried out in horror.
They all turned and looked down as other people started to scream. Coming out of the hole fast were three large metallic-looking flying wedges. Each one looked to be five feet long and two feet wide colored a bright blue. In seconds they had all gone straight up and revealed a purple colored metallic basic skeleton. Each of these had two arms, two legs, and a head with five eyes in a linked circle set in a blank face. But what was shocking was that each of the skeleton's arms ended in sickle blades.
Watching them in horror, it took Ta4 but a moment to understand. These things were here to break the lines, and then others would come after them.
“TAKE THEM DOWN!” She roared as she pulled out a pistol and started to fire as the wedge climbed into the air. Before they had breached the top of the pit the entrance into the structure as in, Ta4 had shot one of them. The deckhands along the side fired as soon as she had yelled, and all three of the wedges crashed to the ground. All but one of the skeletons had been destroyed with their carriers, but one had gotten free. It charged up the slope towards the group of humans.
Duncan reacted first, drawing his pistol in a quick motion and cored the robot’s head. To Ta4’s shock, it kept coming at them, making it another three feet before it crashed to the ground.
Ta4 looked to her left, seeing Leonator with his pistol’s barrel still glowing from the heat. Before she could say anything about it, they heard an explosion and felt a blast of force that pushed them back a foot.
As she started to come back to her senses, Tatrina looked up and saw another explosion from where the last skeleton had been brought down. Understanding hit her in a moment, and she felt horror.
Then she felt real horror, as five more of the wedges carrying skeletons shot out into the air above the pit.
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Qiana
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As soon as she heard the explosions, Qiana looked towards the sound. As her gaze swept upwards, she saw the flying wedges. And their cargo. That was when she realized what it was, and she pulled out her pistol. But then the wedges released their cargo and the skeletons fell towards the ground, one landed right before her.
She fired but it dodged the blast and dashed at her, its blades raised. She dodged to the right by throwing herself in that direction. She hit the ground and rolled to the right before the blades of the robot hit where she had been. As she got to her feet looked at the robot and scowled, her hands clenched around her blaster.
As she looked at the enemy before her, she tried to plan how to handle it. Behind her, she heard the sounds of battle and she could only hope that the capsule was secure. If that thing had gotten in there, then it would be a blood bath! Every one of those within would be killed!
Qiana could only watch as the robot looked at her, and then it turned its head around. It was looking right at the hibernation cell, and that made Qiana angry.
With a yell, she fired but the robot dodged the bolt and within a moment, it was behind her. Qiana tried to move but the robot was faster, and its right blade sliced through her back. She screamed in pain as she felt the blade sliced through her. As she fell forward she felt the robot step on her and start to push down. As she tried to move, she felt herself slowly growing weaker.
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??????????
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The one that had been feeling those kinds of emotions directed at the being was now feeling pain and fear! And as the being slowly started to remember who it was, it felt nothing else near it. But as the one started to feel that being slowly dying, the one felt a surge of emotions and power! As the one’s mind slowly became clearer, it realized that the being must have freed the one! And now something was trying to kill that being? Would it let that thing kill the one that had freed it? No!
As it was still bound, it released all its aether in one burst to break free!
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Qiana
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As she looked at the hibernation cell, Qiana saw her vision start to darken. All she could feel was anger and rage that she was dying like this to that robot. Then the hibernation cell exploded.
The force from the destruction caused the robot to be thrown off her as she was flung into the air. She gasped for breath before she hit the ground, thrown out of the now destroyed enclose they had created.
“Qiana!” Leonator cried out.
She looked up and saw him, Duncan, and Dalila together, firing down at the pit. All around, she could see the remains of robots as deckhands moved all over, protecting the shield emitters.
She tried to get back to her feet but winced. She almost fell but Leonator was there, holding her as he helped her get back to her feet.
“Qiana, what happened?” He asked as the others all moved to join her.
“The Hibernation cell, exploded while the robot was killing me!” Qiana gasped out and Duncan looked past her.
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Duncan
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Duncan glared as the robot got back to its feet, and he aimed at it with his pistol. The report that Qiana had given was the same as he experienced. These things seemed to be programmed to either save power or kill slowly. Both things had bad intentions about whatever sent them out against his people. The answers could wait until they dissected its programming, for now, they had to kill it.
“READY!” Tatrina’s voice cried out. Duncan looked around, seeing everyone ready to fire at the last biped robot.
Duncan looked at the robot and saw it had lost both its arms.
“NO! The others exploded! We need that head!” Dalila screamed.
Duncan knew exactly what she meant. They had to get something to find out what these robots were doing. And this was their last chance.
“I’VE GOT ITI!” A horse voice roared from the smoke.
Everyone looked at the smoke as an armored figure shot out. Duncan felt his breath freeze in his mouth as he saw an honest-to-creation Ancient charge out, a large oversized blade over its right shoulder. Within a single breath, the ancient had reached the robot as it slashed out. The Ancient used its blade to vault over the robot and released its weapon. As soon as the Ancient was a foot above the robot, they moved their arms back and the blade disappeared. As they watched, the blade reappeared in the Ancient’s grip as they moved their arm back before slashing out.
In a single flash, the robot’s head fell off. Once the Ancient landed, they charged at the robot, their blade disappearing again. The Ancient grabbed the robot and threw it upwards before they cried out and thrust both of their arms at the robot. A sphere of black energy shot out and engulfed the robot a single instant before the sphere bulged a foot. The sphere disappeared and the robot's remains fell to the ground.
Duncan only looked at the Ancient as the being turned to them.
“Now what?” Leonator muttered the words that everyone was thinking
